mountain ash berries and dogs eating them

greenrr(5a S. Ontario)April 5, 2009

Hi

I have a eauropean mountain ash that drops its orange berries in the spring. My dog has been munching on the berries that have fallen on the ground. She is not having any symptoms but I want to make sure that they are not harmful. Does anyone know? I hope not, cuz I'll have to fence off the area.

Those fruit look a bit fermented, so your dog might get slightly drunk if the alcohol hasn't all evaporated, but they are otherwise edible. Rowan berries actually make very nice jelly for human consumption.

Common names are just that......common names. There is no such thing as a "correct" common name, as they are all technically incorrect. And they vary widely with regionality and folklore. It's perfectly acceptable to call them whatever is common to your area or what you grew up with. So let's just get beyond that piece of nonsense :-)

I'm surprised there are any berries left at this time of year. Mt. Ash berries get devoured here by birds through the fall and what remains in winter are scavanged by any overwintering birds, usually robins. And it is pretty common to see 'drunk' birds trying to perch in trees after eating the frost fermented berries :-)

Watch out for seedlings popping up. These are now considered weedy pest trees in my area and are borderline invasive species.

It won't hurt - in the wild, wolves (the wild ancestors of dogs) eat a lot of fruit. So do foxes and other canines. It is perfectly natural. Probably better for the dog than eating dog biscuits, which are made from products (grain, etc) that canines don't normally eat naturally.